MICH : LEVEL 11

DAY 248 : H-DAY, THIRDWEEK, HORUS, YEAR 1

BOREAS 1 : BOREAS 1 : BLESSED

The train ride from Central to the continent-sized bear had a lot of official looking officials on official business that I was officially no part of.

So they more or less ignored me the whole time.

It seemed like a good crowd at first. But then all the cool people got off on the first major stop. And the okay people at the next. The train crowd quality only deteriorated from there. Just a bunch of mostly silent, mostly jerks with varying levels of royal status and a united-yet-insular refusal to speak to anyone outside their immediate friend group.

I used my socially isolated time for some weapon smithing. Or at least planning… I still don’t actually have any blueprints. You tend to need to get them to drop from Monsters. And I haven’t fought one of those since I got this CRAFT. Nor do I have Skills for it. But, while smithing itself is a different matter altogether, you can get Blueprints of any rarity to drop just fine without the ability to actually use it.

Finally disembarking, I walk out of the station and see what I didn’t really feel like looking at from the train window. The self-important people who apparently live there notwithstanding, Frost Palace is truly a sight to behold.

Eight towers situated on each corner of the octagonal city, form a series of curving arches and battlements that connect them to each other, as well as the actual palace in the center. Between those points are three neighborhood-like layers of clearly segregated social strata. If the increasingly ostentatious architecture and decoration didn’t clue me in, the actual signs warning peasants away from the middle layer, and minor nobles away from the upper one, definitely would.

Still, you don’t need to be allowed even remotely near the palace to appreciate its splendor. The main structure spirals up and out and up and in and up some more, reaching a height of well over the width of the city it rests atop.

That being Boreas. The city is, tower and all, appropriately or inappropriately depending on who you ask, situated on top of Boreas the Apex of Frost. The overall effect actually reminds me a lot of the ice ‘castle’ from Frozen. Except instead of a townhome with a couple of floors for… Standing there, I guess? This is an actual palace.

More than that, it’s bigger than I thought one of those could even get. I’d suspect it’s the biggest structure in Heaven if not for the fact that I certainly haven’t visited any of the other kingdoms to compare castles. And it might be a little smaller than Central’s own Tower. At least in terms of volume, if not height.

Regardless, each of Boreas the city’s eight twisting outer spires are topped with even more than proportionally massive golden chains that travel down and out to different parts of Boreas the elemental bear.

Thankfully, any issue of deific animal abuse is headed off by the fact that said bear truly doesn’t seem to mind. The chains don’t even appear particularly necessary as they remain somewhat slack even while the elemental himself moves just like I’d expect from any polar bear. Actually, is he even a polar bear? Or is he some kind of Grizzly or something that just happens to be made of ice?

Not even the slightest rattling from the chains accompany the bear fully rolling over, crushing several octagons of land underneath the very back that we should, by all rights, be crushed under ourselves.

But we’re not. The view isn’t exactly spectacular with the entire city appearing as more of an underground cavern with oddly shifting walls. Actually, the effect is kind of cool…

But it’s got nothing on when Boreas turns back over and I can once again see for millions of miles in every direction. Mostly… Humanity’s Territory Barrier blocks the view somewhat. But even within these effective walls, it truly is an incredible sight.

[ RARE CHAIR DEPLOYED: BENCH HALF ]

Sitting on what I belatedly realize must be the only padded bench in this part of the city, I look out. Off the edge, onto Central, even catching sight of Fulgora just above the cloud line over on the other side of forever.

Dangling his legs off the edge of what must be a hundred-mile sheer cliff, the lightning wolf looks for all the world like a lazy quadrupedal lightning storm that just can’t be bothered to strike.

Still, the curve of the sphere isn’t so great that any of the Prime Apexes should be anywhere even approaching blocked from my sightlines by the clouds.

But then I remember just how high up I am. On top of this colossal bear, itself on top of the highest mountain in the kingdom. Not as big as the bear itself, but still… I’m just below the clouds myself, aren’t I?

Newfound elevation-sickness-immunity aside, the clouds are still more miles above me than the entire stretch of the stratosphere on Earth, so I never noticed. But yeah… I don’t think I’ve ever been this high off sea level in any definition of my ‘life’. Damn, no wonder the view’s so good.

Some time after insufficiently appreciating the scenery, I get up, turn around, and make my way to Boreas Temple.

On the way, I catch a nice, healthy smattering of bullshit vendors and scam artists trying to trick newbies who don’t know any better.

I even interject on a few as I walk by, wondering admittedly stupid questions aloud to ‘accidentally’ reveal the scam to anyone listening. I don’t always get through to the victim. But there’s only so much I can do if they aren’t even willing to be helped.

I went to a few theme parks before the Collapse. I was so young, I couldn’t remember the specifics. That changed with Eidetic Memory. Now, I can perfectly recall the flash, presentation, and catering to as many people as possible to get a similar amount of their money. Nothing of any substance, of course. Or of any real value to anyone.

Even still, that can’t taint my memory of it being a truly wonderful experience. Just like this city. Just like now. It may be all flash, but damn if the flash isn’t pretty. The palace topping it all gives the impression of the winteriest wonderland that ever wonderlanded a winter. Only without all the religious trappings. Well, there’s a few… I guess some Christmas lights are unavoidable in this environment.

And then I reach the temple stairs. I know perfectly well that all temples, let alone those qualified to progress, are supposed to be free for everyone.

Yet, some people have apparently tried to set up a blockade that you have to pay to pass. So did they bribe the Royals? Or are they getting a cut? Which, I suppose, equates to the same thing.

In any event, I’ve had my Forever Blanket equipped since I got here, so the improvised blockade doesn’t work all that well as I casually walk right through it. I neither break stride, nor give the maybe-royal extortionist thugs the time of day as they alternately yell at, curse at, or try tackling me to the ground. Okay, it’s only the one guy doing the last. Everyone else seems perfectly aware of how dumb an idea that is with what they clearly recognize as the very item they were all wearing when they arrived themselves. But I digress.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Opposite the palace in every way, Boreas Temple stretches down into the ground, through a staircase that descends to a depth matching the main spire’s height. Does that mean the whole thing is drilling into the bear?

Probably not… That’d be a bit too metal for Heaven, I think. No, it looks more like the massive city is simply elevated just above the massiver bear itself. Kind of like a double-sided cone floating just over its maybe-extant spine between similarly extant shoulder blades. Assuming it has bones… And that does seem to bring the issue of the chains into deeper relief. Not that it’s by any means an outlier in my own understanding for why any of this is the way it is, or even here in the first place.

Like, why the city? Why the animals? Why the kingdoms at all? Hell, why Heaven?

My thoughts only turn more existential from there.

So much so, that I don’t even ask the guard at the bottom any of the myriad questions I came up with on the way down.

I just walk in a thoughtful daze through the archway to the chamber both beneath and opposite the palace’s main spire. Inside is a walkway leading into a glass box at the center of the chamber itself. That I’m supposed to walk into it is easy enough to understand. But… Goddamn if this isn’t even prettier than the view…

The box I’m clearly supposed to enter expands into a glass lotus glowing at the tips with a prismatic light. That lotus is situated in the center of a larger glass flower with petals glowing pink. The pattern continues into layers of orange, green, turquoise and cyan at the outermost flower, the sheer number and reflection of its petals nearly overpowering the rest. But it doesn’t.

Instead, walking through to the center feels like the most Christmasy thing I’ve ever experienced. Including all the Christmases.

I enjoy every second of it.

At least until the guard yells from behind me. “Hey buddy! You wanna hurry it up? It doesn’t instantiate until the flower starts moving!”

I narrow my eyes at the few people already forming a line behind the least tolerant line manager I’ve ever met.

Grumbling, I power-walk through the second half of what should be a much longer experience to get into the damn prismatic-glowing glass flower already.

The instant I come to a stop in its center, the glass box closes behind me like an enthusiastic garage.

Then, the world flashes. Rather, it doesn’t. Not completely. Just everything outside the box. So relatively everything, even if I’m biased against excluding me from that label.

I’m still in the chamber with the flower. But the archway’s gone, along with the short line, the shorter line manager, and the staircase leading out.

And viewed through the glass, all the lights are almost… Not lights. More like galaxies? Or like a gradient that resolves to a window into deep space at the end of each flower petal.

Then the central, formerly prismatic one lowers.

Actually, each of the layers does. But the bottom is the fastest, and that’s where I am, so I’m not entirely sure why the others are even moving. But they are. And they stop at the same time as I do.

As the chamber re-opens, the transparent view of nothing rises to show a landscape of shining cyan crystal that leads to a somehow even smoother wall of the same.

[ COMMUNION INVITE: BOREAS — ACCEPT? ]

With the speed and hurry of a rising tide, the sleeping bear cracks what I now realize is his eye open to spot me on his snout.

I accept the prompt with a gulp.

The bear answers with a lazy, sky-shattering chuff. Or maybe a yawn. Hard to tell from atop his snout. But the bear’s glacier-thick eyelid falls back down over its massive saphire pupil all the same. And once it does…

[ ATTUNEMENT INVITE: BOREAS — ACCEPT? ]

The ice bear doesn’t move after that.

Do I… Do I thank him? If I do, will that wake him up? Is he waiting for it? Or will it just piss him off?

Deciding to play it safe, I shrug.

[ ATTUNEMENT GAINED: FROST ]

[ MOVEMENT BLESSING LOST: VAULT ]

[ MOVEMENT BLESSING GAINED: ICE SLIDE — EFFECT: CREATE A SLIDE BEGINNING ON A NON-HEATED SURFACE IN FRONT OF YOU, AND STEER ITS CREATION AT HIGH SPEED — RESTRICTION: MOTION VALUES DO NOT APPLY, BUT SLIDE WILL COLLAPSE IF CONTACT WITH GROUND IS LOST ]

[ POWER BLESSING LOST: DASH ]

[ POWER BLESSING GAINED: REFRIGERATION — EFFECT: ADD FREEZING EFFECT TO YOUR NEXT ACTION SKILL ]

[ COMPOUNDING EFFICACY UPDATED — MULTIPLICATIVE: QUAKE — ADDITIVE: FROST, GALE, VOID — SUBTRACTIVE: JUICY, SHINE, SURGE — DIVISIONARY: FIRE ]

[ CLASHING EFFICACY UPDATED — ULTRA EFFECTIVE: QUAKE — SUPER EFFECTIVE: SHINE, SURGE — EFFECTIVE: FIRE, FROST — NOT VERY EFFECTIVE: JUICY, VOID — INEFFECTIVE: GALE ]

Heart pounding, I rush to look more closely at my new Power Blessing. Could this work? I… Don’t know. I don’t think this will let me make a freeze gun. But maybe if I can channel Skills into it? Or maybe there’s a way to trigger the smithing process via a Skill? Or maybe I can evolve the Blessing?

‘Maybe’ is the right word as, opening the Blessing Upgrade Menu, I see a spiderwebbing set of trees from each one, at all the standard rarities from Common, up to Mythic. But other than the Common one which I obviously have, the rest is just a bunch of empty circles representing all the ways my new powers can go at each stage. No text. No clue on what any of it refers to, beyond the sheer number of possibilities.

And for the other one, am I basically just Iceman now?

[ MOVEMENT BLESSING: ICE SLIDE ]

Zipping around the gentle curve of the landscape, it becomes very clear that that’s what’s happening. At least in terms of getting around… Don’t exactly have ice beams over here… Or guns that can fire them…

Actually, hold on…

[ POWER BLESSING: REFRIGERATION ]

[ COMMON ACTION: SUMMON ARROW ]

Oh hell yeah! Ice arrows. Taking my bow out, I nock and nearly fire. Actually, hold on…

[ POWER BLESSING: REFRIGERATION ]

[ UNCOMMON ACTION: ATTUNED ARROW ]

Woah… Now the ice arrow is roiling with a cyan cold… Distinct lack of energy… How the hell does this work?

I loose it at a spot on my slide just past where I started moving.

On impact with my ice slide, the ice arrow with extra, extra ice seems to reinforce it, freezing the ice over to make a thicker layer.

Huh… That’s neat. Although I was kind of trying to destroy it there.

Taking out another arrow, I distinctly don’t use my Blessing this time.

[ RARE ACTION: EXPLODING ARROW ]

I almost fire it at the non-reinforced bit past the start of the slide, but wince as I catch sight of what I initially mistake for a sapphire river appearing in front of me.

But no, that’s just Boreas’ eyelid cracked open in clear annoyance at me getting detritus from the power he just gave me all over his snout.

I keep the wince up as I get back into the glass lotus and float up, away from, and out of my patron god’s face.